Well, we had to have a regression some point down the line. It wasn't that conceivable that Blake could keep up his solid level of play, but for him to fall flat so badly against Utah was rather startling. Solid on defense for essentially the entire season, even against the likes of Chris Paul, Blake was positively annihilated by Mo Williams everywhere on the court, whether on post-ups, drives to the rim, or a simple failure to keep with him going around a screen. On a night in which Utah's frontcourt players were mostly kept in check, Williams helped keep the Jazz offense running and Blake was simply found lacking in this regard. On offense, it was not necessarily the missed threes, which happen from time to time, but the hesitancy that has seeped back into his game, analogous to when he first arrived in L.A. The instance that best illustrates this was when Blake caught the ball with a wide open three, pump faked (!), allowed his defender to close in on him, and ended up passing to Gasol in the corner for a three. For the past few games, that lack of decisiveness had been missing, and Blake will need to excise it again for him to return to being a serviceable rotation player

It was ONE game out of the last THREE that he looked hesitant again. Can you really blame him? After seeing crap effort from some guys, pouting and not getting back by Kobe, and watching Dwight Howard get stripped 5 times?

He wasn't the only one hesitating. In light of the way he's played the REST of the season, I'm giving him an opportunity to prove me wrong tonight before jumping on the "Blake Hate" Bandwagon.